Do you make money at home games?

[TenPercenter]

[rdu $teve]

How can u not? I'm made $929 at various home games last week. Made a wopping $20 last night at $1/$2 NL.

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
How can u not?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because some of us are new to the game. I have played poker my whole life, but never read a book and learned all the abbreviations I see everyone using (like "LAG": I still haven't looked that one up.)

I consistently make money, but I have not yet convinced myself that It's not a good luck streak.


[ QUOTE ]
I'm made $929 at various home games last week.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's awesome man, you don't even have to work! Is that a normal week? What type of games do you have to get into to make that much?

Ten

[Lumpy]

Home built table - $150
Kem's + Copag's - $50
800 Chipco "Suits" - $656

Taking money from your friends - Priceless

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Home built table - $150
Kem's + Copag's - $50
800 Chipco "Suits" - $656

Taking money from your friends - Priceless

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice, but I don't consider anyone at the table my "friend". They're there to take my money, I'm there to take theirs. It's Capitalism at its finest! *smirk*

[David04]

Yeah, all my firneds suck at poker /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[AlphaMeridian]

I make a little, even though, my main goal isn't to per se take their money, as it is to learn how to play better poker. Actually, that's what got me started on this entire poker thing. I got invited to a friend's home game once, lost my shirt, got scared. The 2nd time I went, I broke even and thought there might be something to all of this mess, so then I started reading and it snowballed from there. But no, I don't look at them as my "soft cash game" per se. A number of them are pretty good players, so I kinda look at it as some people would look at a 2+2 game.

-Alpha

[Cassius]

LAG == loose/agressive

Personally, I tend to lose money, well from game to game at least, but I usually end up even overall, win 80-100 bucks one night, come in 2nd or 3rd for the next four or five, repeat. That kind of thing. Mainly because home games are more Poker Party than Party Poker, if you know what I mean. =)

[ricochet420]

I usually come in first in my home tourney, but the buy in is usually only 30 bucks and we pay top 3 so i don't make that much, but the braggin rights are what's worth it. BTW, what's a 2+2 game?

[2planka]

Still in the hole from purchasing supplies (chips, tables, chairs, KEM's, etc.). Used cashouts from online play to buy all the stuff, though, so overall I'm still ahead. Just need to host a few more games to get outta the home game red.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Still in the hole from purchasing supplies (chips, tables, chairs, KEM's, etc.). Used cashouts from online play to buy all the stuff, though, so overall I'm still ahead. Just need to host a few more games to get outta the home game red.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not if I have anything to say about it! See you on the 20th suckaaaaaa! w00t! heh heh

[Jaquen H'gar]

I just joined a new home game, one of the softest home games around, a weekly no-limit SNG with 9-13 players. The buy-ins are large ($500 with one $250 rebuy), the rake is large ($500) - but the prizes are larger: 6-7k for first, 1k for second.

There's no way in hell I would play poker for these stakes except the other players are ATROCIOUS, all but one who is merely loose. Their philosophy really is "Any two cards can win." Unfortunately, the escalating blind structure favors the lucky, and I haven't been lucky. First two weeks, I didn't win a single hand. Last week, I finally won a hand, actually two, and finished third. I figure my chances are 25% to win so maybe this week is my week! Alas, I'm down $2250 and my wife thinks I'm a sucker.

Me: But, honey, they are so bad!
Her: How do you know? If they were so bad, you wouldn't lose.
Me: When my Kings all-in preflop bet gets called by J,6 suited, they're bad.
Her: Did you win?
Me: Well, no. He hit the flush on the river.
Her: That's what I thought. Hmmph.
Cut to me trying to get the bad beats out of my mind while trying to fall asleep on the sofa.

If I can survive the variance, I should make a big killing.

[Mojo Tooth]

Hm. Pokercharts tells me I'm only up about $44 over the last year of home games of vastly varying difficulty and stakes. Excluding any tournaments, so just ring games.

I'll call that "breaking even" I guess. Certainly hasn't paid for the money I put into building my table. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
Hm. Pokercharts tells me I'm only up about $44 over the last year of home games of vastly varying difficulty and stakes. Excluding any tournaments, so just ring games.

I'll call that "breaking even" I guess. Certainly hasn't paid for the money I put into building my table. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

What is "pokercharts" and where can I get it? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ten

[exist]

Poker Charts (http://www.pokerchart.com/)

[rdu $teve]

Most 2+2ers seem to be some level of advanced players, that why I assumed most are making some kind of profit. $929 is definately not an average week for me. On the year, I am up a total of $3100 ($+70/wk); that includedes online and home games. So unfortunately, I do still have to work. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Mojo Tooth]

[ QUOTE ]

What is "pokercharts" and where can I get it? /images/graemlins/smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Well someone linked it above (although I use pokercharts.com instead of pokerchart.com, they point to the same website as far as I can tell).

It's a very handy thing. Basically you enter in session data including the type of games played, length of session, buyin, cashout, blah blah blah.

You can then get some pretty good stats and graphs on your performance over a number of sessions.

There's a lot of other optional stuff you can do like track your success against specific opponents (I don't do this yet but I might start, especially for home games).

It's free, and handy. I recommend it I suppose, unless you already have a pretty good tracking system of your own. The nice thing about a web-based one is that you can input your sessions from wherever you can get a net connection instead of carrying them around until you get to your computer to input them. I did this when in Vegas on a couple trips this year, and because I did I can tell you exactly how badly I got my a$$ kicked at the Mirage, and how great I did playing at the Excal and Bally's. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[sonataarctica]

sounds like my girlfriend. "if they are so bad why do they beat you?" thats when i mentally turn down her volume

-Modar

[John_Manley]

very nice.

[PhatPots]

I usually make money. We play $10 NL tourney, winner take all, except second gets his money back. With 6 players means a $50 prize for first place. I win it 1/3 times. Nice bit of money, but I enjoy playing. For me, it isn't so much about the money at home games.

[bconway6]

I used to make much more at my home game. Then they started taking poker seriously. /images/graemlins/frown.gif I can still make some money, but we need to bring in a few select players for that. The rest of the time we’re just having fun pushing money around the table. Even when were doing that though, since we know there’s no money to be made we spend time critiquing each others play and trying some pretty strange things that we would never consider in a normal game, like the turn reraise bluff.
I think the reason we get so crazy is because we know each others play well and are learning to manipulate it. When that happens it really does become more important to play the man not necessarily the cards.
Even though we don’t make money from each other those nights we are still getting a return on our time when we go to the card room to play other people.

[AlphaMeridian]

You know, sometimes a lot of forum posters here organize a game on party, or they gather together and head to a casino. Of what I can gather, they pretty much know that the people in the group aren't total fish, so much fun ensues.

It's kinda the same with my home group. We have our local maniac, but most of the people are pretty decent, and I have a lot of fun playing with them. It's not per se the same attitude I have when I go play random people on Party or at the Borgata.

-Alpha

[wingsfan]

I'm probably a little up in my home games if you only look at buy-ins vs. winnings. However, given the low amounts that I play for, I'm probably roughly even or a little down when you factor in the 3 to 6 beers that I have at a game (always BYOB). Either way, it makes for a fun night and my winnings at least partially cover my alcoholism. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[edge]

I make money, but my regular home game is $5 buy-in NL, so it's never a big win, but it's enough to cover a cheap dinner later.

[mrjetguy]

The home games that I play in are always with prety good friends and are fairly low stakes. My focus is usually more on having fun, but I still average a small profit.